E. L. Doctorow

History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.

Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.

There is no longer any such thing as fiction or nonfiction; there's only narrative.

This truth is a remedy against spiritual pride, namely, that none should account himself better before God than others, though perhaps adorned with greater gifts, and endowments.

Whoever grows angry amid troubles applies a drug worse than the disease and is a physician unskilled about misfortunes.

Songs sung under duress are often very powerful.